It's been over 10 years since John Battelle first started considering what he called the "Database of intentions." It was, and is: "the aggregate results of every search ever entered, every result list ever tendered, and every path taken as a result." When Battelle considered the implications, it overwhelmed him. "Once I grokked this idea (late 2001/early 2002), my head began to hurt." Yet, for all its promise, marketers have only marginally leveraged the Database of Intentions. In the intervening time, the possibilities of the Database of Intention have not diminished. In fact, they have grown exponentially

Fellow Search Insider Rob Garner recently summarized a few of the key findings from this year's SEMPO marketer survey, noting an interesting data point related to the intersection of search and social marketing. Rob focuses much of his summary on the survey's finding that "60% of companies treat 'social media and search marketing separately,' as compared to agencies, where 58% state that 'social media is very much a part of our search activity.'" Rob goes on to refer to search and social marketing activities as "interdependent," and as a result of that interdependence invites readers to share their perspectives around ...

People don't trust search ads. At least, 64% of people don't trust search ads. Apparently, search is not unique. According to the same research, nobody trusts ads of any kind. That's not really surprising, given that it's advertising. Its entire purpose is to make us suddenly want crap we don't need. Small wonder we don't trust it. But you know what we do trust? The opinions of our friends. Nothing I should have said up to this point should come as a shock to anyone reading this column. The only thing I found mildly surprising here was that we had ...

There are two things I'm wildly attracted to: smarts and celebrity gossip. I attribute the latter to my lacking awareness of cultural happenings. Reading People magazine happens primarily at O'Hare and I've failed miserably at my New Year's resolution to watch more television. So, when I know anything at all, especially something involving real Hollywood, I get giddy. And I know something now that you may not!

Mark Zuckerberg took the stage last week at Techcrunch Disrupt to discuss all things Facebook, including the inevitability of a true Facebook search engine. It was the piece of information that most technology writers gravitated towards; even the stock price took notice (Facebook shares rose more than $2 per following the Zuckerberg interview). Why is the promise of a Facebook search engine so exciting to users and shareholders alike?

SEMPO has just released its 2012 marketer survey, and there are many interesting findings among categories of spending, practice, and other key industry data. Just as in last year's survey, there is another point about search and social synergy that sticks out to me, but this time it is not about paid media. It is about how agencies and in-house marketers differ in their approaches to interdependent search and social marketing

"That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." -- Garrison Keillor. How good are you? How intelligent, how talented, how kind, how patient? You can give me your opinion, but just like the citizens of Lake Wobegon, you'll be making those judgments in a vacuum unless you compare yourself to others. Hence the importance of benchmarking.

A little over a month ago, Google introduced a new report into Webmaster Tools: Structured Data. This new report allows website owners to access the types and amount of structured data that Google finds on the website. Why would Google create this report? What is its benefit to webmasters?

Earlier this year I wrote a column, Paging Doctor Google, where I noted my recent career move into the healthcare marketing space. There are several adjectives I could use to describe my to-date experience in this new field -- "challenging" would be definitely be chief among them. My perception heading in was that the marketing and advertising world was divided between B2C and B2B communications. You either market to consumers or businesses. Simple enough, right? My subsequent experiences have caused me to rethink that mentality, and place healthcare marketing in its own class.